Sign up for Oxfam email updates

Reports

Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common in Russia, and the 2012 drought confirmed this trend. However, Russia still has only a small number of specific agricultural adaptation measures in place. This case study analyses the key difficulties that small-scale farmers faced as a result of the 2012 drought and discusses possible adaptation measures, which could be used to confront these. It argues that climate change and the absence of adaptation policies are creating food security problems and a livelihood crisis for small-scale farmers.

This briefing paper explores how the failure to tackle climate change threatens all aspects of food security – availability, access, utilisation, and stability. The changing climate is already jeopardising gains in the fight against hunger, and it looks set to worsen. It threatens the production and distribution of food. It threatens people’s ability to access food by undermining livelihoods and destabilising prices, and it damages diets by harming human health and putting at risk the quality of food produced. Finally, the paper sets out how these impacts can be averted, through urgent action to avoid dangerous climate change, address our broken food system, and strengthen its resilience.

Only 1 per cent of the Afghan National Police is female. Although female police are vital for Afghan women to be able to report crimes and access desperately-needed justice, few women in Afghanistan will ever encounter one. Further action is urgently needed to recruit, train, retain and protect Afghan female police officers. This is critical for upholding the rights of Afghan women and girls and can contribute to sustainable peace and development efforts in Afghanistan

This study, published by Oxfam and the Beirut-based ABAAD-Resource Centre for Gender Equality, finds that women are bearing the brunt of the refugee crisis with the majority of the women interviewed saying they had resorted to desperate measures to survive. Many women are regularly going hungry so their children and husbands can eat. Around 90 per cent of women interviewed said they regularly skip meals because there is simply not enough food to go round.

By supporting small-scale agricultural producers, policy makers in governments and donor agencies can help some of the poorest people in the world to improve their livelihoods. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that most donor and government policies are currently biased towards large-scale agriculture at the expense of small-scale producers, women, and rural communities.

Bananas sold by Dole in New Zealand carry a sticker that says “Ethical Choice”. This research report undertaken by Philippines research organisations and released by Oxfam New Zealand, suggests that the treatment of workers on Dole’s Philippine banana plantations is anything but ethical. These are the plantations that supply bananas for the New Zealand market.

The human cost of Syria’s conflict has risen beyond all expectations. In January, the UN predicted 1.1 million refugees by June. This April, there are already 1.3 million. Inside Syria itself, 6.8 million people struggle in urgent need of assistance.

As the numbers grow, however, the money to help some of those refugees and displaced people is running out. UN appeals have received only half of what they sought – to help far fewer people than they now need to assist.

In 2012, the Sahel was once again hit by a severe food crisis affecting more than 18 million people. The region’s governments, donors and aid agencies were determined to avoid mistakes made in the response to previous crises. But while their response was better in many respects, there were still some critical shortcomings. The poorest families and communities suffered most, as deep-seated inequalities made some people far more vulnerable than others. While continuing to address the enormous humanitarian and recovery needs in the region, we also must all learn the lessons from the 2012 response and develop a new model that will allow better prevention and management of future crises. The growing momentum around the concept of resilience offers considerable potential to achieve this, but only if all actors work together to turn rhetoric into action that brings lasting improvements for the poorest communities across the Sahel.

The outcomes of the UN climate talks in Doha in 2012 were out of step with what the science says is required to reduce emissions, and they completely failed to ensure the support needed by millions of poor women and men who are facing climate-related shocks of increasing frequency and severity. To secure an ambitious global climate agreement in 2015, developed countries will need to demonstrate a track record of year-on-year increases in climate finance over 2012-2015 and a credible pathway for continued increases up to 2020. For these goals to be realised crucial steps are needed in 2013.